Classical music on the iPhone
Matthew B. Tepper
It was a floor model, chained to the display table. In a few minutes, I was
doing just about everything it's built to do -- made a phone call (to my cell
phone), displayed the installed photo albums and added a few shots more with
the built-in camera, surfed the web, brought up videos on YouTube, and played
music via the iPod. In short, it acted just as it does in the commercials,
so long as you realize that the Internet connectivity was from a Wi-Fi access
point in the store, and not via AT&T's slowish EDGE network.
And that last is the reason for this post. When I've played with the various
iPod floor models in Apple Stores, they all come preloaded with a selection
of music which does not include any classical; I think the closest they get
is Enya, who is a sort of Newagey performer. But the iPhone floor model had
actual real-o true-o classical music items, to wit:
Sony:
Joshua Bell, "The Voice of the Violin"
Janine Jansen, Vivaldi, I Quattro Stagioni
DGG:
Anna Netrebko, "The Russian Album"
Lang Lang, Beethoven PCs ## 1 & 4
Lorin Maazel/New York Philharmonic, Mozart Syms. ## 39, 40, & 41
None of these would exactly be on my top-1000 list, and in particular I feel
the Bell disc is fluff and a waste of his talents, but at least this isn't
the expected crapola by Tut-Tut-Tut, What's-His-Name, and also You-Know-Who.
Am I buying an iPhone? Nah -- or at least, not yet, anyway. The reasons can
be summed up in five characters: "$" and "AT&T". Maybe after the inevitable
improvements and drop in price, but not now. And I really wouldn't like to
leave Verizon just yet ... despite the fact that somebody at the Sherman Oaks
Verizon Store lied to me over the phone a few weeks ago, causing me to waste
time, effort and gas driving over there for nothing.
Well, there it is.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
Paul Ilechko
> I think the closest they get
> is Enya, who is a sort of Newagey performer.
I'm kind of surprised to see you write this; this is what the great
unwashed think of classical music - that it's 'music for relaxation'. I
think that there is a lot of rock and jazz music that is closer in many
ways to classical, in terms of giving you something challenging that you
can get your teeth into, than any of that soporific 'New Age' tripe is.
Matthew B. Tepper
letters to be typed in news:5er32vF...@mid.individual.net:
I intended a little sarcastic barb there; evidently too little. My reference
is to the time that obnoxious little Welsh girl said in an interview that she
and Enya were "saving" classical music. I can't remember where or when this
was, but you could probably find it via Google.
sechumlib
> Am I buying an iPhone? Nah -- or at least, not yet, anyway. The reasons can
> be summed up in five characters: "$" and "AT&T". Maybe after the inevitable
> improvements and drop in price, but not now. And I really wouldn't like to
> leave Verizon just yet ... despite the fact that somebody at the Sherman Oaks
> Verizon Store lied to me over the phone a few weeks ago, causing me to waste
> time, effort and gas driving over there for nothing.
You prefer Verizon to AT&T? That's where you and I disagree, Matthew.
And yes, Verizon will lie to you whenever possible.
td
> Am I buying an iPhone? Nah -- or at least, not yet, anyway. The reasons can
> be summed up in five characters: "$" and "AT&T".
Why are we not surprised.
Tepper: the cheaper than a used rug.
> Well, there it is.
No, there YOU are.
TD
Matthew B. Tepper
letters to be typed in news:468860f8$0$31235$4c36...@roadrunner.com:
> On 2007-07-01 21:22:28 -0400, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyž@earthlink.net>
True, and in that wise they are probably no better than anybody else. But
they have the best coverage by far in Southern California. I remember one
time a couple of years ago when the family got together to see my niece in a
musical, and as my brother was leaving the theater he found that he didn't
have enough bars. My sister and I both have Verizon, and we both offered him
our phones. It was a satisfying moment.
Steve de Mena
> I played with one for about fifteen minutes at the Sherman Oaks Apple Store.
> It was a floor model, chained to the display table. In a few minutes, I was
> doing just about everything it's built to do -- made a phone call (to my cell
> phone), displayed the installed photo albums and added a few shots more with
> the built-in camera, surfed the web, brought up videos on YouTube, and played
> music via the iPod. In short, it acted just as it does in the commercials,
> so long as you realize that the Internet connectivity was from a Wi-Fi access
> point in the store, and not via AT&T's slowish EDGE network.
They are working on improving speeds. A bunch of
upgrades went into effect Thursday night that
increased speeds to 250-300k a second in some
areas, up from the 25k range.
Right now I am getting 100.1 Kbps.
Steve
Steve de Mena
> sechumlib <sech...@liberal.net> appears to have caused the following
> letters to be typed in news:468860f8$0$31235$4c36...@roadrunner.com:
>
>> On 2007-07-01 21:22:28 -0400, "Matthew B. Tepper" <oyž@earthlink.net>
>> said:
>>
>>> Am I buying an iPhone? Nah -- or at least, not yet, anyway. The
>>> reasons can be summed up in five characters: "$" and "AT&T". Maybe
>>> after the inevitable improvements and drop in price, but not now. And
>>> I really wouldn't like to leave Verizon just yet ... despite the fact
>>> that somebody at the Sherman Oaks Verizon Store lied to me over the
>>> phone a few weeks ago, causing me to waste time, effort and gas driving
>>> over there for nothing.
>> You prefer Verizon to AT&T? That's where you and I disagree, Matthew.
>>
>> And yes, Verizon will lie to you whenever possible.
>
> True, and in that wise they are probably no better than anybody else. But
> they have the best coverage by far in Southern California. I remember one
> time a couple of years ago when the family got together to see my niece in a
> musical, and as my brother was leaving the theater he found that he didn't
> have enough bars. My sister and I both have Verizon, and we both offered him
> our phones. It was a satisfying moment.
Sound quality is not as good as GSM technology,
though. You can go to more parts of the world
with GSM and your phone will work.
Steve
dt
Good show Tom. Tepper always deserves a gratuitous tongue lashing.
Carry on.
DT
Matthew B. Tepper
Object. Actually it was partly because somebody, I can't recall who, had
asked me if the iPod portion of the iPhone had complete classical albums,
or just a few selections. The answer is some of each -- the Bang Bang
Beethoven concerti are both there complete, with the additional sonata,
while the Maazel/New York Phliharmonic set of Mozart symphonies just has
the "Jupiter," not K. 543 and K. 550.
There also seemed to be at least selections from Yo-Yo Ma's second set of
the Bach Suites, the ones stupidly labelled as "inspired by" JSB rather
than composed by him; but I couldn't figure out how to view the full track
listings, which truncated after a limited number of characters. And I was
wrong to state that there was no krossover krap present, because there was
something from that ridiculous mockera boy band "Il Divo." As my interest
in this foolishness is next to zero, I didn't take note of any details.
I will report one thing with lip-smacking pleasure, however -- whatever
functionaries at Apple decided on the selection of classical tracks for the
boilerplate iPhone floor model included Joshua Bell's recording of
Schubert's "Ave Maria" but attributed it to Charles Gounod. What a maroon!
Steve de Mena
> A follow-up: I went back to the Apple Store today to touch the Holy
> Object. Actually it was partly because somebody, I can't recall who, had
> asked me if the iPod portion of the iPhone had complete classical albums,
> or just a few selections. The answer is some of each -- the Bang Bang
> Beethoven concerti are both there complete, with the additional sonata,
> while the Maazel/New York Phliharmonic set of Mozart symphonies just has
> the "Jupiter," not K. 543 and K. 550.
>
> There also seemed to be at least selections from Yo-Yo Ma's second set of
> the Bach Suites, the ones stupidly labelled as "inspired by" JSB rather
> than composed by him; but I couldn't figure out how to view the full track
> listings, which truncated after a limited number of characters. And I was
> wrong to state that there was no krossover krap present, because there was
> something from that ridiculous mockera boy band "Il Divo." As my interest
> in this foolishness is next to zero, I didn't take note of any details.
>
> I will report one thing with lip-smacking pleasure, however -- whatever
> functionaries at Apple decided on the selection of classical tracks for the
> boilerplate iPhone floor model included Joshua Bell's recording of
> Schubert's "Ave Maria" but attributed it to Charles Gounod. What a maroon!
Gounod is the credited composer of that track in
the iTunes store. No one likely did any
modifying, they just used existing ITS offerings.
As you might imagine, no music is included in the
iPhone when you buy one.
Steve
Matthew B. Tepper
following letters to be typed in
> Matthew B. Tepper wrote:
>>
>> I will report one thing with lip-smacking pleasure, however -- whatever
>> functionaries at Apple decided on the selection of classical tracks for
>> the boilerplate iPhone floor model included Joshua Bell's recording of
>> Schubert's "Ave Maria" but attributed it to Charles Gounod. What a
>> maroon!
>
> Gounod is the credited composer of that track in the iTunes store. No one
> likely did any modifying, they just used existing ITS offerings.
>
> As you might imagine, no music is included in the iPhone when you buy one.
Nor was any with the iPod; I'm just reporting what samples are included on
the floor models for demonstration purposes.